- Breastfeeding Support
- Peer Counseling
- Resources
Breastfeeding Support at WIC:
- All of our WIC staff receive training to encourage and support breastfeeding.
- Breastfeeding is the optimal method of feeding for our babies.
- Mother’s milk provides perfect nutrition for her own baby.
- Breastfeeding your baby enhances bonding with your baby.
We have breastfeeding experts who have received additional training:
International Board Certified Lactation Consultant: |
Cindi Holly-Rausch, IBCLC |
Certified Lactation Consultants/Educators: |
|
Twin Falls Office: |
Caroline Dolezal, Dori Holler, Sandra Perez, Ofelia Guzman, Tina Farnes |
Jerome, Gooding, and Bellevue Offices |
Helen Hopkins, Margie Chavez, Ines Gonzalez, Janet Garcia-Lopez |
Heyburn Office |
Tammy Walters, Maria Vega, Berenice Bautista, Susan Musselman, Juana Hernandez |
Breastfeeding Peer Counseling Program
SCPHD's WIC program is pleased to provide an evidenced based Peer Counseling program to assist in breastfeeding promotion and support. The Peer Counselors are WIC mothers who live in the community and have breastfed their own babies. Peer Counselors have been selected by WIC to help give new mothers basic breastfeeding information, counseling, and support and to help new mothers meet the goal of breastfeeding their babies.
Heyburn/Jerome clinic |
Daniela Lopez, CLE |
Twin Falls clinic |
currently vacant |
Peer Counselors receive specialized training to provide information and support on:
- Reasons to breastfeed
- How to address common barriers, including returning to work, and lack of support from family and friends.
- Getting a good start with breastfeeding
- Maintaining a healthy milk supply
- Preventing common problems such as sore nipples and engorgement
- Strategies for getting through the first weeks home with the baby
- Your body is built for breastfeeding. How the breast makes milk including breast anatomy, milk supply, American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations.
- Having a breastfeeding plan to take to the hospital which includes exclusive breastfeeding, importance of skin-to-skin, rooming in.
The WIC Peer Counselors will contact mothers regularly during the pregnancy and during the early days and weeks of breastfeeding. Peer counselors will also assist with prenatal breastfeeding classes and are available to new mothers outside the usual working schedule who have breastfeeding questions. Peer Counselors refer mothers to appropriate lactation experts or healthcare professionals if the mother’s concerns are outside the peer counselor’s scope of practice.
WIC provides breastfeeding education at all prenatal appointments including prenatal classes.
Topics covered include:
- Health benefits of breastfeeding for mother and baby.
- When to Feed Your Baby: hunger cues, feeding guidelines, cluster feedings.
- How can I tell if my baby is getting enough to eat including growth spurts, counting diapers, proper weight gain, and keeping a feeding log.
- Expressing and pumping milk, nipple care, and warning signs of problems.
- Breastfeeding support at WIC, feeding in public, and returning to work or school.
Breastfeeding Resources:
Developed by the Texas Department of State Health Services WIC Program, Every Ounce Counts is a website full of useful information about breastfeeding.
International Lactation Consultant Association
1-800-LALECHE
Operated by the Office on Women's Health
800-994-9662 | Monday - Friday 7 a.m. – 4 p.m. MST